I've had better luck on the forums - on most of the freelance sites, you are not allowed to contact the person directly and at best, you are going to exchange a few PMs
get on some of the large mainstream forums and look there (or why not here) and then get on Skype or ICQ with a number of guys and you'll get a better idea of who you are dealing with; many of the mainstream forums have iTrader system, which is a good start (not perfect, but it will help you weed out the weakest links right away)
hourly rate - stay away, unless you are looking for a VA that has to perform mixed bag of tasks; stick to per project payments and settle for milestone payments if you have to
unless you are looking for a programmer or designer, I've found out that girls do better job most of the time and tend to be more reliable - I hate to sound sexist, but it is what it is
good luck
|